That the distinction between myth and history is a tenuous one hardly requires elaborate documentation. Anthropologists have recorded the way in which accounts of the tribal past, recorded in genealogies, change with the organisation of the social groups to which they refer. In Malinowski's phrase, they serve as the ‘mythical charters’ of the social system. But this is a feature not only of non-literate societies.

The newly independent countries of Africa are now in the second stage of their anti-imperialist revolution. This stage is characterised by their struggle to overcome cultural and economic backwardness, to achieve economic independence, to raise the living standards of vast masses of their peoples. These problems are closely related to the nature, rate, and scope of the social transformation taking place in these countries, which in turn depends to a great degree on economic development.

Economic integration in East Africa has been discussed throughout the past 50 years or more, although—until recently—only in terms of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Almost as soon as Kenya and Uganda became established as political entities, close economic links were established between them, and when British administration was extended to Tanganyika after 1918 that country was brought into close relationship with its two northern neighbours. Thus a customs union between Kenya and Uganda was established in 1917, and Tanganyika was gradually incorporated within it between 1922 and 1927. The links were strengthened as economic development advanced, and were formalised under the East Africa High Commission from 1948 onwards: so they became an important part of the inheritance of the three states as they gained political independence in the years 1961–1963.1

By contrast with many other African states, the Ethiopian Government has in recent decades been almost monotonously stable. The Emperor Haile Selassie reigns and rules through a political system which remains in essentials the direct descendant of the imperial Government as it has existed down the centuries.1 In the last quarter-century, only the attempted coup d'état of December 1960 has seriously challenged his régime. The purpose of this article is to disentangle the various elements present in the coup, in order to illuminate the themes of rebellion and attempted revolution in an indigenous African polity.

Economic progress in many developing African countries depends mainly on raising productivity. Agricultural development is required to free resources—especially labour—for the expansion of industry and the creation of the infrastructure of a modern state. At the same time the physical volume of output must rise, both to provide food and raw materials for the expanding urban areas, and to earn foreign exchange.

Since programmes of government lending to African businessmen are widely relied upon as a means of stimulating economic development, some analysis of their efficacy is clearly needed. Peter Marris's article ‘Lending Money’ made an interesting contribution along these lines;1 but it was undermined by a fundamental flaw in his delineation of the problem. The present article has two fundamental purposes. First, it presents what the writer believes to be a more adequate analysis of the basic predicament of lending agencies in Africa. Secondly, it attempts to show that the nature of the problem calls for changes in the usual approaches not only to (a) lending programmes, but also to (b) the family of programmes to aid indigenous business (of which loans schemes are one member), and beyond that to (c) the still broader issue of policies to accelerate the growth of the directly productive sectors of the economy.

Scholars have very little information on inter-regional economic relations within African countries. This article focuses on patterns of inter-regional and socio-ethnic group migration and business relations in Nigeria,1 with special reference to entrepreneurs who make or deal in footwear. The material presented refers only to the two-year period prior to the coup d'état of January 1966.

The theory of the African revolution, which is still in many respects only in its initial stage, found a most powerful inspiration in the West Indian psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon. His writings were at first confined to the French-speaking public, and even after their initial translation into English (published by Présence africaine) they remained almost unknown. But the growing race tensions in Africa and the United States are drawing more and more attention to this original thinker.

The African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development (C.A.F.R.A.D.) was established at the suggestion of King Hassan II. This royal initiative helped to give concrete form to the resolution proposed by Morocco and adopted at the 12th session of the U.N.E.S.C.O. General Conference, which authorised the Organisation to co-operate in establishing such an African regional institution with its headquarters in Tangier. The guidelines for the project were laid down in a provisional agreement between the Moroccan authorities and U.N.E.S.C.O., signed in May 1964.

This colloquium, which followed that held in Bucharest in 1966, was organised by one of the five working commissions of the International Union Architects (U.I.A.). Its theme, ‘Housing for the Majority, with special reference to developing countries’, was studied by over 80 participants from 22 countries.

This meeting was organised jointly by the Government of Haute-Volta and by the Cultural Division of U.N.E.S.C.O., which had taken the initiative, as part of its preparation for a general History of Africa. In this context one must mention also the recent colloquia held at Niamey and at Timbuktu, the former concerned with oral, the second with written sources, ofAfrican history. This Ouagadougou meeting was essentially logistic in character; having established in principle that it is necessary to collect African oral traditions in order to fill out the outlines of history, the task was to list the problems of all kinds posed by the work of collection, and to consider possible solutions, especially in connection with both national and international research plans.

Organised and sponsored by the U.N. Public Administration Division, this intercontinental seminar dealt with problems related to the development of senior administrators in the public service of the developing countries. The 37 participants were either leading civil servants or heads of training institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; in addition there were observers from the advanced countries and the specialised agencies of the United States. The seminar's four working groups met regularly in the afternoons to explore in depth the topics discussed at the morning plenary sessions. These included: the definition of the senior administrator and the delineation of his responsibilities; the identification of his developmental needs; the personnel system under which he operates; the institutional arrangements for the development of his administrative potentialities; and the evaluation of the methods and techniques designed to achieve these objectives.

This workshop, sponsored by the University of East Africa and the Institute of Social Research at Makerere University College, with additional financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, was subdivided into two brief conferences. The underlying idea was that the more traditional disciplinary concerns of the political scientists of East Africa should form the basis for the first day, after which the workshop would broaden into an interdisciplinary experiment, with additional participants.

Perhaps a major decision that must be made by the organisers of professional conferences is whether to structure them in terms of a particular theme or alternatively to allow for a wide diversity of presentation and topics. If the former course is followed there is some danger that specificity of focus will be achieved at the expense of over-all attendance, but this did not appear to be the case at the recent meeting of the A.S.A., attended by over ioo members. Fortunately, the subject of the conference, ‘Education in Africa: current experiment and research’, was itself diffuse enough to enable contributions to be forthcoming from a wide variety of disciplines and from scholars whose research preoccupations were extremely diverse.

The African Studies Center at U.C.L.A. has recently inaugurated an intensive 15-month seminar in African studies for 30 faculty members, nominated from I 5 out of the 75 institutions which applied to participate. The purpose of this programme, which is being financed by the U.S. Office of Education, is to encourage the growth of African studies in teacher education. The 15 participating colleges were selected on the basis of their commitment to introducing African studies or to expanding their existing courses. Each was asked to nominate two faculty members, in the conviction that by interacting with one another (as well as with administrators and other colleagues of their home institutions), two participants can do much more to stimulate African studies than could one person, acting singly. The U.C.L.A. seminar is being directed by Dr John Povey of the Department of English and Dr Michael Lofchie of the Department of Political Science; it has three distinct phases.

The period of military rule in Nigeria has brought fundamental changes in the country's administrative system, which foreshadow further significant ones to come. This is a useful point at which to summarise the changes so far made and consider what major problems remain.

Nigeria achieved independence from colonial rule in i960 with a federal system of government in which the administrative system was largely modelled on that of Britain. The Federation consisted at that stage of three Regions, the smallest of which was larger in terms of population than all but six of the 48 mainland countries in Africa. The federal and regional administrations were organised along lines familiar to the British civil service: the centrally deployed staff of the ministries and departments were divided into administrative, executive, secretarial, clerical, and miscellaneous classes, while specialised classes existed for those in the professional and technical grades. In addition, statutory corporations were established at both federal and regional levels to operate public enterprises, notably for marketing and development finance.